Cromwell resident honored for long-time service to state

JEFF MILL

Published 12:00 am, Saturday, February 13, 2010

CROMWELL -- Ask people in Cromwell to define "service," and more than likely, they will point to Alice Halstedt.

For half-a-century, Halstedt has served the town in a variety of capacities; she was on the commission that wrote the original Town Charter. She served two terms in the state legislation. And once, she even engaged in municipal equestrian removal.

For all those reasons and more, more than 60 friends, town officials, and family members gathered at Covenant Village on Friday evening to salute - and thank - Ms. Halstedt for a life spent helping others.

"She truly is a special woman, said Enzo Faienza, the chairman of the Cromwell Republican Town Committee, as he presented a plaque honoring Halstedt on behalf of the committee.

And Selectman Patrick Ahlquist, subbing for an ailing First Selectman John M. Flanders, presented a similar proclamation on behalf of the town declaring Feb. 12 "Alice Halstedt Life-time Achievement Day."

As Ahlquist handed the plaque to the Halstedt, he said, "You've got so many plaques, you're going to need to get a two-bedroom apartment."

Over the past 50 years, Halstedt, who will turn 90 in May, has served the town, the region and the state, as well as the Republican Party on both the local and state level.

She served 25 years on the town's Water Pollution Control Authority and 10 years on the Planning and Zoning Commission, as well as serving on the charter commission (and several subsequent revision commissions).

Halstedt also served on the town's Bicentennial Commission and the Mid-State Regional Planning Agency. After serving two terms in the General Assembly, she worked in the state senate for another 10 years, and also worked for Gov. Lowell R. Weicker.

"You're a role model for giving of your time and your talent," Ahlquist said.

Still, it wasn't all glory, her friend and the emcee for the event, Sandra Muller, acknowledged.

Halstedt was secretary for the first selectman in the late 1960s and early '70s, when the job was still part-time, Muller explained.

Which meant that as secretary, Halstedt "ran the town," Muller noted.

One day, when she was secretary for then-first selectman James Caso, "one of her jobs was to remove a dead horse from one of our roads," Muller said.

But, according to her daughter, Linda Ursin, perhaps Halstedt's greatest gift was the example she set for her three children, Ursin (who lives in East Hampton), and her brothers Robert (of Portland) and Steven, who lives in Denver.

"She just went about doing things; if she saw something that needed to be done, she quietly did it, so we thought we could do anything," Ursin explained.

That was particularly true in Ursin's case: Ursin developed polio at age 5, at a time when the very word "polio" struck fear into the hearts of parents.

Halstedt was "a single mom," Ursin said. But she was determined "to find someone who could do the surgery on me so that I could have a better quality of life," Ursin said. And she did it.

Haltstedt was doing advanced aerobics into her 70's, Ursin said, and she could "walk five miles without breaking a sweat."

One Christmas, when she was in her 80's, Halstedt "was up on a ladder hanging lights of a drainpipe, and a man from the neighborhood came over - and asked her if she could the same thing for him," Ursin said.

Halstedt didn't tell the man how to hang the lights; she carried her ladder over to his home and climbed up and hung the lights for him.

"She's just a phenomenal person," Ursin said. "We're just so proud of her."

"She's the kind of woman you don't have to take to lunch - you want to!" Ursin said.